Today's Quote: John Aravosis

Americablog:

If we breathe, the GOP will complain that we're breathing. It's what they do, it's how they play the game.

Bonus:  Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) will introduce a bill into the Senate that would repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ban on open LGBT people serving in the military. By all rights, this bill should have the wind at its back. A new CNN poll shows that 69 percent of the public favors repealing DADT, including 62 percent of registered Republicans. But in the current political climate in which the minority would fillibuster the sun’s rising in the morning and force the Democratics to consider exempting Nebraska from the earth-rotation mandate, I have a feeling it won’t see smooth sailing.

Reax: Polis, Aravosis, Frank

CBS interviews Jared Polis and John Aravosis:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Excerpt from a reader's comment on Americablog about the Barney Frank flip-flop:

By making such a crass and transparently political calculation, Barney Frank has committed the same mistake that Mattachine made. He has overvalued his relationship with the Democratic power establishment over his relationship with our community - and in so doing, he has forgotten his roots. Had he spoken up for our community by giving voice to the pain that ordinary gay couples feel over DOMA, we would have rallied around him as a natural leader. But by defending Obama's indefensible legal brief, he has placed himself at odds with his own community. He will not lose everyone's support - our community is not monolithic - but at this very moment in history, Barney Frank was handed a rare opportunity to rise to the occasion and become a truly great leader. Instead, he has revealed himself as just another crass politician.

The old wineskin is incapable of containing the new wine.

What I Say: I like Barney a lot, he's shrewd as hell and tells it like it is. But just as he said the other day that the President "has made a big mistake," so too I think Barney has now made a great error. He's still playing the political ballgame after the game has been called.

And furthermore, your Head Trucker is amazed at the utter insanity of some bloggers and commenters to the effect of, Well I'll vote for the Republicans next time. That's just bizarre, and totally not comprehending reality.

Who in their right fucking mind could possibly vote for the party of Limbaugh, Cheney, Palin, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Sally Kern, Larry Craig, Ted Haggart, and oh let's not forget George W. Bush?? It's the party of torture and unlimited executive power, remember?

Please, Mary, put the pipe down and snap out of it. The Republican party is in its death throes, anyway; they won't go quietly, but they are the dinosaurs of the 21st century. Supporting a quasi-fascist party is definitely not the way to go, boys. You really want to be singing "We're here, we're queer" as you're marched into a metaphorical detention camp?

Either we have to pile on the heat to get the Dems' attention; or somehow a new and vote-winning party, more responsive and more concerned about all the people's needs - not just the gays' - has got to arise here. We've all been very well trained to think of American politics as "either-or"; but maybe it doesn't have to be either Dems or Repubs, maybe there's room for more and better in our political system. Certainly, a massive turn to a new, more progressive outfit would get the Dems' attention in a hurry.

Sometimes what looks like a very small, almost trivial incident, can set in motion a huge movement. It occurs to me that this little debacle could be the crack in the dam, a historic turning point in the political history of this country - if the Dems don't act fast to make good on their fine talk and promises. It's about civil rights, people - it's not optional anymore, it's required.

Or else the Dems just might follow the Republicans into extinction one day. I've already recommended that you fellas take a look at Canada's New Democratic Party. Give some thought also to the platform of Britain's Liberal Democrats, and see if you like what you read. The names aren't important, it's the philosophy the party stands for.

I'm not a prophet or a political wizard, but one thing I do know: Change has come to America. And maybe a bigger change than anyone really expected. Think it over.

Promoting social liberalism, Lib Dems seek to minimise state intervention in personal affairs: they oppose what they call the 'nanny state'. Their president's book of office is John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, which defined the harm principle of law. While objecting to state limitations of individual rights, they favour a welfare state that provides for the necessities and amenities of life. . . . strong environmentalist values . . . renewable energy . . . taxing the rich more . . . power to the people.

--Wikipedia

Shit, Meet Fan

John Aravosis in Salon magazine:

Everyone loves a parade, but we don't like being betrayed. And while gay and lesbian Americans were initially willing to cut our new president some slack, the president's now-clear reticence to follow through on even one of his many campaign promises to the gay community has put the Democratic Party on the precipice of an ugly and very public divorce with this once-solid constituency.

During the presidential primaries, then-candidate Obama promoted himself as the biggest defender of gay rights since Harvey Milk. He would be a "fierce advocate" for our rights, he promised, and he even out-gayed Hillary Clinton: telling gay and lesbian voters that while she was for a partial repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), he'd get rid of the whole damn thing.

And there was much rejoicing.

Then, not so much. . . .

On taking office, Obama immediately announced that he was doing away with the Clinton-era concept of special assistants who served as liaisons to various communities like gays and Latinos. He then went ahead and appointed special liaisons to some of those communities anyway, but never to the gays. Around the same time, the White House Web site, once detailing half a page of presidential promises to the gay community, overnight saw those pledges shortened to three simple sentences. Gone were five of the eight previous commitments, including the promises to repeal both Don't Ask Don't Tell and DOMA. Adding to a growing sense of angst, senior White House officials kept telling the media that they weren't sure when, if ever, the president would follow through on his promises to the gay community. Then there were the Cabinet appointees. Three Latino nominees but nary a gay in sight. And finally, last week our president had his Department of Justice file a brief in defense of DOMA, a law he had once called "abhorrent." In that brief, filed on the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia (which outlawed bans on interracial marriage), our own interracial Harvey Milk, not lacking a sense of historical irony, compared our love to incest and pedophilia.

Shit, meet fan.

. . . What can the president do to avoid outright rupture with the gay community? He needs to start fulfilling his campaign promises -- even one would be a nice start. He needs to stop the discharges, and stop the Falwellian legal briefs in support of a policy he opposes. He needs to push -- really push -- for legislation banning job discrimination, repealing DOMA, and lifting Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Many of us were willing to cut our new president some slack. Not anymore.